Municipal court challengers tackle tough job

A challenger in the race for a Franklin County Municipal Court judgeship is putting a new spin on getting his name in front of voters.

John Futty, The Columbus Dispatch

A challenger in the race for a Franklin County Municipal Court judgeship is putting a new spin on getting his name in front of voters.

David Young thinks his campaign is the first in central Ohio to employ sign spinners.

“We’re trying to be very unconventional,” said Young, a Dublin lawyer seeking to unseat Judge W. Dwayne Maynard in the November election.

The sign spinners stand on busy street corners and try to attract the attention of drivers by making acrobatic moves with arrow-shaped “David Young for Judge” signs. The tactic is more often used to lure customers to fast-food restaurants or mattress stores.

Maynard, a Municipal Court judge since 1993, agreed that the approach is unconventional for a judicial candidate.

“I would suspect that, for some people, it’s eye-catching, and for other people, it probably makes them wonder, ‘What is this guy doing?’?” he said. “Is this a proper reflection of a judicial officer?”

Name recognition is crucial in nonpartisan judicial races, Young said, and can give incumbents the upper hand.

Taking on a sitting judge is seen as such a daunting task that a majority of incumbents in Ohio don’t face challengers.

Of 95 municipal-court judges on the November ballot in the state, 68 are running unopposed, according to the Ohio Judicial Conference.

Franklin County is bucking the trend: Three of four Municipal Court judges face opposition.

In addition to the Maynard-Young matchup, Judge Andrea C. Peeples is opposed by Barb Pfeiffer, who is an assistant Ohio attorney general, and Judge Eric Brown is being challenged by Jim O’Grady, an assistant Franklin County prosecutor.

Judge Michael T. Brandt is unopposed.

The Franklin County Municipal Court consists of 15 judges, each of whom serves a six-year term at a salary of $114,100.

“I appreciate the value of my name, but I’m running because of my qualifications,” she said. “I’v e been a litigator my whole career. I’ve had people tell me, ‘You’d be a great judge, and you’ve got a great name.’??”

She is touting her “highly recommended” rating from the Columbus Bar Association’s Judiciary Screening Committee in contrast to the “acceptable” rating the committee gave Peeples.

Peeples, who won an open seat on the court in 2005 after working as an assistant city and county prosecutor, questioned the value of the ratings, saying the majority of the committee members don’t practice in Municipal Court.

She said she is dedicated to moving the court forward in a county with significant Latino and Somali populations. “We need to make sure that language barriers don’t interfere with equal access to justice,” she said.

Although Brown appreciates the value of incumbency, he was a Common Pleas judge when he unseated the Probate Court judge in 2008. He left Probate Court to take an appointment as chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, a seat he lost in the 2010 election. He was appointed to the Municipal Court in January.

“I know from my experience that it’s not impossible to beat an incumbent, but it takes a lot of hard work,” he said.

O’Grady criticized Brown for what he described as “jumping from job to job.”

Brown said all those experiences have made him a better judge.

Maynard, the longest-serving of the incumbents on the ballot, is seeking a fourth term on the court.

“Certainly, I want to tout my experience, my years of service on the bench,” he said. “That can’t be understated or undervalued. And because I’m not an old guy, when I say my best years of service are still in front of me, you can probably feel comfortable with that.”

Young said that Maynard has “fallen into a rut” after 18 years on the bench.

Young has been a lawyer for 25 years and has trial experience as a prosecutor and defense attorney.

He said he can bring fresh thinking and updated technology to the court.

Detailed information about the candidates and their judicial philosophies may be found in the voters guide at Dispatch.com.

jfutty@dispatch.com

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